Obama responds to McCain's Britney-and-Paris ad: "is that the best you can come up with?" We're all kind of hoping so, actually. [ABC News]

Meanwhile, McCain's camp is accusing Obama of playing the race card. I guess they really weren't paying attention during the primary season when Hillary tried that. [NY Times]

He'd probably just rather you not know that Exxon Mobil's earnings last quarter were $11.68 billion, the largest quarterly earnings by a U.S. company ever — or that their share price fell upon that news because they were expected to be higher. Because if you knew, you might think that there was something hinky with his energy plan, or lack thereof. [HuffPo]

Speaking of hinky, the House held hearings into the teeny-tiny sexual assault problem the military seems to have in Iraq, though they didn't touch specifically on LaVena Johnson. The link has a great video of a rant about how fucked that whole situation is; it totally gave me a ladyboner. [Crooks & Liars]

Tim Russert's son is going to be doing convention coverage for NBC. I'm pretty sure that sounds kind of wrong to me. Oh, and why doesn't Rachel Maddow have a show yet? [AP]

A California court has ruled that the evil early termination fees the cell phone companies are charging you aren't legal. Not that I have a contract, but I might get one now if it means I won't have to pay a fee the next time I'm feeling flighty. I mean, if I move to California, that is. [Yahoo News]

A judge has ruled that the White House doesn't have the power to ignore subpoenas from Congress. Expect nothing else to happen for a while, wheels of justice moving slowly, etc. [NY Times]

Cynthia McKinney says that if the Mainstream Media gave the Green Party more press they'd be the second-biggest party in the U.S.. I say: not with Cynthia's kind of anti-Semitic crazy at the helm, it wouldn't. [Washington Post]